Review of MERCY — in theaters now
MERCY is a clever, original, thought-provoking film starring Chris Pratt as Detective Chris Raven — the accused; and Rebecca Ferguson — the no-nonsense, objective and efficient AI Judge Maddox. From start to finish, it will keep you on the edge of your seat and your heart pounding with is breath-taking fast pace, masterful execution, intelligence, suspense, action and plot twists.
Many new movies try to play it safe as sequels to proven, audience-validated concepts. While some do better than others at presenting a new story within a situation that we are already familiar with, others are disappointing and ultimately forgettable because of their overall similarity to what we have already seen before.
MERCY is a fresh, new concept. It masterfully breaks new ground with its original story, combined with well-cast characters and just enough special effects chops to pull off its future tech. Just when I thought that I knew where it was heading, I was repeatedly caught off-guard and surprised by its clever plot twists.
The basic plotline of MERCY, as stated in its official press kit, is: “In the near future, a detective (Chris Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge (Rebecca Ferguson) he once championed, before it determines his fate.”
The film’s press kit expands on this, asking us to: “Imagine you awaken to find yourself strapped into a chair, face to face with a judge who informs you that you’ve been accused of murder — and unless you can exonerate yourself in 90 minutes, you’ll be executed instantly. You have access to every bit of camera footage on the web to prove your case, and you can use that to convince the judge of your innocence. Yet all of that private and public surveillance footage could put you closer to a guilty verdict. It’s a nightmare scenario. And in the exciting, revolutionary, visually dynamic action thriller MERCY, it takes on future-world overtones as Artificial Intelligence serves as judge, jury and executioner.”
The year is 2029 — not very far into the future, yet within its vision of what might lie in store for us in our future, our legal system is turned upside down, in favor of Artificial Intelligence adjudicating the outcome. Whereas in our human legal system — where defendants on trial are presumed innocent unless proven guilty, and appeals are possible — in the Mercy court Detective Raven has only 90 minutes to exonerate himself, or face immediate execution as he sits restrained in the Mercy Chair. A red countdown timer and Guilt Percentage Meter maintain the suspense.
Humans can be fallible, biased and inconsistent. Instead, the digital AI Judge Maddox has been assigned to the Mercy Court as judge and jury, to adjudicate the case against Detective Raven. This Artificial Intelligence, digitally represented by a woman, has been tasked to gather, analyze and weigh the facts of the case, but how far will she go and what will she do to objectively determine those facts and reach a decision? In pursuit of her goal, she guides and encourages Detective Raven to focus his attention and efficiently spend his minimal available time to help her do that.
Officer Jacqueline “JAQ” Diallo’s flying motorcycle of the future gives us an exciting, fresh new twist for surveillance and car chase scenes. Unfortunately, in our world of today, and not of the future, a Google search told me that “the flying motorcycle featured in the movie MERCY is a fictional, special-effects vehicle used for the film and does not truly fly in real life. It is a prop used for the character Jaq (played by Kali Reis) to zip around a futuristic Los Angeles.” That’s too bad.
MERCY is a well-cast, especially entertaining look into where we may be heading with our increasing use of, and reliance upon, Artificial Intelligence.
To watch a trailer for MERCY and to get tickets, visit: https://www.amazon.com/salp/mercy?hhf= /. I watched MERCY in 2D, but it was filmed for IMAX and is also available in RealD 3D. It is rated PG-13.
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Jan, yes it’s been a long time. Good to hear from you. This sounds like a great movie, and the AI judge is an interesting angle. I’ll probably wait until it’s on streaming TV. Right now my son and I are in Halifax watching the Winter Olympics with family and friends. It’s so cold that some inlets of the Atlantic Ocean are frozen. David
Hi David,
I watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics yesterday. I prefer the Winter Olympics to the Summer Olympics. It will be interesting to see how Lindsey Vonn does tomorrow, considering her serious ACL injury. She is an incredible athlete.
Jan